A slightly quieter day today. We started by catching the free Cityhopper ferry from Dockside (right by the hotel) across the river to Sydney Street. From there we walked along the riverside path to New Farm Park. This is a lovely old park full of roses, which were still just out though almost over, and jacaranda trees. The names jacaranda is believed to be of South...
If I have a superpower (and clearly I don’t!), then it would be finding boats and maritime museums wherever we go. Today was no exception. We started on a boat …. the free Cityhopper ferry along the Brisbane River. This started just outside the hotel and a few stops later dropped us by South Bank and the Queensland Maritime Museum. Given that walking past...
Another day of driving today. We headed off early from Nambucca Heads and got a send off from a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch who was having breakfast in the garden of the B&B. Apparently the word kangaroo is derived from the Guugu Yimithirr word gangurru. Joseph Banks must have learnt this word from the Aborigines they encountered as he used the term...
A driving day today. We picked up a car first thing from the Hertz office in Downtown Sydney and then made our way north. Around six and a half hours later (after a lunch stop at a very nice ‘sustainable cafe’ in Nabiac) we arrived in Nambucca Heads. Fairly unprepossessing, but some lovely views along the coast to the north and south. We are staying in a...
Today was our last full day in Sydney, so we decided to fill some gaps in what we had done previously. We started by walking over (via a wool shop) to Darling Harbour and the Maritime Museum. There were a couple of special exhibitions – one on Bligh and one on sea creatures, but we decided just to look at the permanent galleries. There were some interesting...
Bondi Beach is probably the most famous in Sydney. Boondi is actually an Aboriginal word meaning surf and Bondi is a mecca for surfers. We took the bus from Hyde Park out to Bondi and watched the surfers for a while – a much safer pastime than partaking …. We then set off on a walk recommended by Alex; the coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee. Around...
Sydney has one of the great harbours in the world. It was not in fact where Captain Cook first landed. He made his landfall at Botany Bay. This was originally named Stingray Bay (we can probably guess why!), but later he crossed this out and named it Botany Bay – a reference to the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander...
It’s hot here … well it is to a pom! With a forecast of twenty eight degrees and bright sunshine, we did the obvious thing today and went walking. Mad dogs and englishmen and all that ….. Still it was a lovely walk. We started by walking up to Circular Quay from the hotel. Our hotel is well placed centrally at Hyde Park, so it is only 20 minutes or...
We wandered the streets of Sydney today. For breakfast we headed back over to Chippendale and went to a cafe local to Fiona and she then took us round via Central Park to Darling Harbour. On the way, we went past the first building in Austrlia designed by the architect Frank Gehry. This building is for the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the design has...
Last night was sadly our last night in New Zealand. Our flight to Sydney is not until 4pm, so we spent the morning exploring around Christchurch. Despite the devastation wreaked by the earthquakes and aftershocks, this is a vibrant city which is re-building itself in an interesting and innovative way. We spent a lot of the morning wandering around the museum. It had...